June 9, 2008 7:03
Another Awful Day in BlackBerry Politics
Last week, I wrote a piece bemoaning the political ramifications of my own email inbox, where BlackBerry politics happens. Some readers noted that it might be nice to know more about the silly rapid-fire give and take that takes place behind the scenes, as campaigns and parties try to spin reporters via mass email.
So herewith is today's BlackBerry Politics Report, vol. I.
NOTE: The partial quotes below are propoganda, and cannot be trusted. Also, for brevity, I did not list all the third party, scheduling, and speech emails I received.
5:45 a.m. Email from Obama campaign called "Obama Today." It is 797 words long. Key quote: "Four more years of failed Bush policies"
6:18 a.m. Email from RNC noting that the New York Sun has written about a Wall Street Journal story that says James Johnson, an Obama adviser, got a good deal on real estate loans from Countrywide Financial, a controversial company, because of his relationship with the CEO. 1062 words.
6:33 a.m. Email from McCain campaign called "Barack Obama's Higher Taxes Agenda." 1521 words. Key quote: "That's change we just can't afford."
7:01 a.m. Email from RNC called "Obama's Economic Policies Are Wrong For N.C." 1780 words. "Obama has proposed a laundry list of tax hikes."
8:58 a.m. Email from the DNC with "Three questions John McCain won't answer today." 929 words. Key quote: "Please enjoy today's installment."
9:14 a.m. Email from McCain campaign called "McCain Morning Update." 4104 words. Key quote: "Just a few one liners we don't think you will hear today."
9:21 a.m. Email from McCain campaign inviting me to a 10 a.m. conference call about Obama's "Economic Tour."
9:27 a.m. Email from Obama campaign inviting me to an 11:45 a.m. conference call about Obama's "Economic Tour."
9:30 a.m. Email from McCain campaign to announce that the 10 a.m. call has been postponed.
9:34 a.m. Email from McCain campaign called "ICYMI: Clinton Supporters Voting For John McCain," with a transcript of a recent Fox News segment. 680 words. Key quote: "We love Hillary Clinton."
9:52 a.m. Email from the RNC called "Backgrounder: Campaign Money Watch," attacking a nonprofit of the same name for being a "partisan organization," which has taken money from "radicals" like George Soros. 782 words. Key quote: "They have no credibility."
Don't worry. There's more. Post-10 a.m. after the jump.
10:02 a.m. Email from Campaign Money Watch, reminding me of the organizations conference call at 11:30 a.m. to announce an FEC complaint against John McCain.
10:09 a.m. Email from RNC announcing an 11 a.m. conference call with Missouri Gov. Roy Blunt to discuss Obama's visit to Missouri.
10:26 a.m. Email from DNC called "The Daily Flipper." 1,531 words. Key quote: "McCain hit with another FEC complaint."
11:05 a.m. Email from RNC with links to five blogs discussing Jim Johnson's ties to Countrywide Financial.
11:16 a.m. Email from Obama campaign called "John McCain's Promise of Four More Years of the Bush Economy." 3,418 words. Key quote: "McSame."
11:40 a.m. Email from DNC responding to an RNC attack website that was recently launched. 1,332 words. Key quote: "McCain misleading Americans."
11:55 a.m. Email from RNC called "Obama's Housing Default," highlighting, again, Jim Johnson's ties to mortgage lenders. 2,173 words. Key quote: "The sweetheart deals and subprime ties."
12:06 p.m. Email from DNC called "Why Virginia is in Play." 2,036 words. Key quote: "Virginians vote for progress."
12:14 p.m. Email from Campaign Money Watch announcing that the FEC complaint has been filed.
12:20 p.m. Email from DNC called "McCain Myth Buster." 918 words. Key quote: "McCain's distortion on capital gains comes as no surprise."
12:27 p.m. Email from the McCain campaign saying the conference call will now happen at 1:45 p.m.
1:05 p.m. Email from the RNC pointing to another blog post by Marc Ambinder about the Jim Johnson issue.
1:19 p.m. Email from the RNC pointing to a new Fox News blog post about the same issue.
1:40 p.m. Email from the DNC with questions reporters should ask on the 1:45 p.m. conference call. 1,817 words. Key quote: "fact sheet below."
2:45 p.m. Email from RNC about former Sen. John Breaux critiquing Obama's windfall profits tax proposal on MSNBC.
3:25 p.m. Email from DNC critiquing the 1:45 p.m. conference call. 1,302 words. Key quote: "Doug Holtz-Eakin took his shameless political attacks to hypocritical new lows."
4:10 p.m. Email from Obama campaign attacking McCain's gas tax holiday idea. 458 words. Key quote: "So what?"
COMING SOON: Vol. II. THE 4:10 to 11:59 p.m. EMAILS. THEY WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!
About Swampland
Ana Marie Cox is the founding editor of Wonkette and the author of the novel Dog Days. Read more
Joe Klein is TIME's political columnist and author of six books, most recently Politics Lost. Read more
Karen Tumulty is TIME's National Political Correspondent and has also covered the White House and Congress. Read more
Jay Carney is TIME's Washington bureau chief. He has covered the Clinton and Bush 43 White Houses as well as Congress. Read more
Jay Newton-Small has covered the Bush 43 White House and Congress since the DeLay era. Read more
Michael Scherer is a TIME Washington bureau correspondent covering the 2008 presidential campaign. Read more
Mike Murphy is a GOP consultant and was a senior strategist for John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign. Read more
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Reader Comments (35)
That is why they invented the delete button my friend. ;)
I'm surprised you didn't get at least a few emails offering you untold millions from Nigeria. I get at least three or four a day of that variety.
Posted by TeresaKopec | June 9, 2008 7:17 PM
The same day John McCain lies and claims he didn't and wouldn't attack the press, one of his top advisers claims that the recession is the media's fault. McCain's campaign spirals further into self-parody.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/09/mccain-hassett-recession/
Posted by Florida | June 9, 2008 7:26 PM
So all that James Johnson stuff is to inoculate McCain from the Phil Graham fallout?
Not that there has been any outside of Talking Points Memo.
Posted by Paul-no not that one | June 9, 2008 7:28 PM
When are you going to write about Phil Gramm? Or are his ties to UBS and his writing McCain's economic plan just plain old blackberry politics.
Posted by McCain Fluffer | June 9, 2008 7:40 PM
Man, that sounds horrible. If the parties or campaigns ever have bad news, they should just e-mail it to you with the subject line "Today's Installment" and it's certain to be ignored.
Posted by Beth in VA | June 9, 2008 7:59 PM
Um, I'm pretty sure that I was the commenter that suggested this type of "crap I get in the intertubes" type post.
I deeply apologize to you for having to type all of that crap, and to the online community for having to read it.
===
At some point this evening, poor Michael is likely to get e-mails like this:
RNC: Did not.
DNC: Did, too.
McCain Campaign: Did not
Obama Campaign: Did, too. Infinity.
===
And so on...
Posted by Casey Morris | June 9, 2008 8:05 PM
So do you read all these, or do you have a complex system of determining which ones are likely to have good bits of info, or do you just delete en mass?
I ask because my eyes glazed over at about a quarter of the way through.
Posted by Cliff | June 9, 2008 8:10 PM
Wasn't this "Blackberry politics" phrase coined by David Brooks?
If so, why must one legitimate it by using it? That just encourages him to engage in more of his third-rate armchair sociologizing.
Now pardon me while I go enjoy the Applebee's salad bar...
Posted by Enceladus | June 9, 2008 8:11 PM
Poor Michael. The rest of us just get ads for Cialis and would be scams involving fictitious Nigerian princes.
Posted by TomT | June 9, 2008 8:24 PM
Did I miss it or has there been any explation for why Obama bizarrely ditched the press by sending them to Chicago without him?
Posted by space | June 9, 2008 8:45 PM
Kinda supports my theory that media bias is not as much in how you "report" on things but more on what things you choose to "report" on (by report I mean pass along). Obviously, anybody with an agenda to push is going to get about 15 things to run with before lunch. And they will be so busy doing so that they can fool themselves into thinking that they are really on top of everything.
Posted by Dennis Denuto | June 9, 2008 8:46 PM
McCain Fluffer wants to know why there's nothing about McCain's more serious issues, involving his relationship with the conflicted, to put it mildly, Phil Gramm. I do too.
Is it because the Obama campaign and DNC haven't made an issue of it? I mean this seriously: Would it help if Obama's campaign sent an email commenting on the issue? Do you feel it's Obama's job, not yours, to make it an issue for the campaign? Is that what's going on here?
Posted by Mike M. | June 9, 2008 9:13 PM
Isn't it kind of odd for MS to decry "Blackberry politics" when previously he posted something about an email Charlie Black had just received on his Blackberry? Something that turned out to be totally false and made MS into a liar?
MS is a prime practicioner of "Blackberry politics."
Posted by Margalis
|
June 9, 2008 9:26 PM
OK Michael, you've got Spam! Political spam! Sing along with me spam spam spam.
Instead of trying to read it, why not just delete the lot? Why let them drive you and your agenda? Why not make your own?
By the way, did you ever ask McCain any of those questions swamplanders posted?
Posted by JoyousMN2 | June 9, 2008 10:17 PM
I love this, Michael Scherer.
Thank you so much for the report; it's enlightening as hell for those of us not meant to be conduits for their messaging.
I'm serious --please keep these coming!
Posted by stuart_zechman | June 9, 2008 10:28 PM
I'm with stuart, Michael. One of the best things you can do is just copy and paste this stuff right here. Won't take long, and it will force some reporters to do some reporting.
Posted by jayackroyd
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June 9, 2008 10:31 PM
Are you guys serious? Even I get spam from the DNC. How does copying and pasting spam force reporters to do anything? Is this campaign spam some sort of revelation?
By the way, did you ever ask McCain any of those questions swamplanders posted?
Oh you kidder!
Posted by Margalis
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June 9, 2008 11:35 PM
Ok, I'm totally confused. I for the very first time agree with Teresa.
I for the first time think both Jay and Stuart have read something I missed or worse, have joined QH and his bff's. The emails are no more than propaganda to me. What is it about this stuff do you find compelling? How is this stuff going to make reporters report.
Posted by jose | June 10, 2008 12:02 AM
For the record, the fact that I agreed with Teresa probably disqualifies me for any chance of being right on this point.
Posted by jose | June 10, 2008 12:04 AM
Are you guys serious?...How does copying and pasting spam force reporters to do anything? Is this campaign spam some sort of revelation?
Margalis:
Yes, we're serious. It's called transparency.
How does it help us, you ask?
Because if Michael Scherer provides this info systemically and on a reliable and predictable basis, then we can compare the coverage to the messages ourselves, and see for ourselves which reporters are simply acting as conduits for the campaign's messaging --which reporters' "coverage" and "analysis" are effectively copying n' pasting, whether for tabloid or ideological purposes.
Conversely, we can also then more readily observe which reporters are engaged in the hard work of evaluating claims, verifying assertions and generally doing the work that the authors of our constitution imagined when they included the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.
Posted by stuart_zechman | June 10, 2008 12:07 AM
Stu's short version: It gives us a chance to separate the bull nuggets from the hay for ourselves.
So to speak...
Posted by Mr. Nice Guy | June 10, 2008 12:40 AM
Thx, Mr NG!
Posted by stuart_zechman | June 10, 2008 1:50 AM
Here's a suggestion:
Don't read them! Delete them! Instead, educate yourself on the issues that are important to voters. Such as: Why is the dollar so much weaker now than it was when Bush took office? How does the national debt affect consumers? What was the real relationship between John McCain and Jack Abramoff?
From our discussion yesterday, it has become clear to me that you will not ask substantive questions of the McCain campaign because you fear that you will not know enough about the subject to know whether the "answers" they provide are BS or not.
Posted by smedley | June 10, 2008 8:01 AM
Glad you enjoyed this, but don't expect this to be a regular feature. My bosses expect me to come up with stories, not just transcribe my email account, and half of yesterday took about an hour. Which is the reason that I doubt there will be a vol II, as promised.
But I am not done writing about Blackberry politics.
Smeldey, excellent deduction about my fear of "answers" that will make me feel dumb. Now if only it had some remote connection to what is going on. . .
Posted by Michael Scherer | June 10, 2008 8:46 AM
Hey, Micheal--
You might point out to your bosses that this post is what readers asked for. That this post is exactly the Holy Grail of what Time should be looking for on its blog: user driven content.
I think that posting your e-mail propaganda list in order to show what campaigns are trying to drive in the media is helpful to people trying to understand the process.
Is there some legitimate reason that this information should be kept behind the wall?
Posted by Casey Morris | June 10, 2008 9:58 AM
Sorry, I misspelled your name, Michael.
I'm sure that getting an answer to one's question likely increases in direct proportion to actually getting someone's name right.
Posted by Casey Morris | June 10, 2008 9:59 AM
So when were you planning to come up with some of those stories your bosses expect? Did McCain's mimeograph break down?
Posted by FlownOver | June 10, 2008 11:06 AM
"Smeldey, excellent deduction about my fear of "answers" that will make me feel dumb. Now if only it had some remote connection to what is going on. . . "
So why are you keeping that evidence hidden from us?
Posted by smedley | June 10, 2008 11:48 AM
Specifically:
Where is evidence that you have asked McCain about his Abramoff connections?
Where is evidence that you have asked McCain about the 750,000 documents that he is hiding from the public about the Indian bamboozlement?
Where is evidence that you have asked McCain about the weak dollar?
Where is evidence that you have asked McCain about the connections between Bush economic policies and the weak dollar?
Where is evidence that you have asked McCain about, well, any of the suggested topics that you received from us when you solicited said topics?
Posted by smedley | June 10, 2008 11:54 AM
Here's a link to a Politico article about the relationship between Bush policies and the weak dollar: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/10940.html
But, then, you already know all of this stuff.
Posted by smedley | June 10, 2008 2:41 PM
Why do I get the feeling that most of the emails showing up on MS's Crackberry read pretty much the same way (change target as appropriate for sender)
Posted by Moonwolf
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June 10, 2008 2:46 PM
Apparently, Michael is no longer responding here. I, for one, have learned my lesson:
Michael = not dumb
Michael = he write, we read
Michael = does not need to show proof of work to readers
Readers = do not ask Michael to ask questions that Michael asked for
Readers = do not seek evidence that Michael has asked pertinent questions of presidential candidate
Posted by smedley | June 10, 2008 3:38 PM
Aww Smedley, let's be friends. If you go back to that original thread about the questions, i never promised to ask any question from readers, or to engage in an unending back and forth about whether or not i am a coward for not taking orders from Swampland commenters. I was just curious about the things that people thought was under covered. Per anti-Moloch lib blog convention, this small admission of curiosity became just another notch in my belt of total sell-out mendacity.
As I was trying to make clear in this very post, I get many dozens of requests a day, mostly from professionals, sometimes from readers, telling me what story I should be working on. I am destined to disappoint regularly, and i am not interested in discussing publicly everything I am working on. In the meantime, I would ask that you try to judge my work for what I do, not for all the pet projects I do not pick up. And I may even disappoint you then, but you can always take solace in your ability to call me dumb, or authoritarian, or hypocritical, or whatever you wish in theses threads. That is a pleasure I would not want to deny you.
Posted by Michael Scherer | June 10, 2008 3:56 PM
Thank you so much for engaging in commentary, Michael Scherer.
Whatever our disagreements, the response is very much appreciated.
Posted by stuart_zechman | June 10, 2008 4:09 PM
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